Sonic the Hedgehog's Contest History
Who is Sonic the Hedgehog? Who is Sonic the Hedgehog?!?! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN........"Who is Sonic the Hedgehog?"?!?! Whippersnappers these days..... Gamers of yore will remember the greatness of running around loop-the-loops, jumping over perilous pits and nabbing rings along the way on the Sega Genesis with the Blue Blur. Newcomers to the video game realm might have a harder time in figuring out who Sonic is and to be honest, I can't blame them. Sonic has gone from the upper echelon of video game mascots to petty thug with some titles lacking a wide range appeal to the new generation of gamers. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." and that's the motto Sonic games have taken with their fast paced 2D thrill rides lately on the Game Boy Advance. Blue Blur has ventured into the 3D realm with "Sonic Adventure 1", "Sonic Adventure 2" and "Sonic Heroes" and has come up with a wide range of feedback. Sonic has a comic book series, had a long running cartoon TV show and was well known to many back in the old days. "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" and "Sonic & Knuckles" remain classics to this day and can be found on the PS2 and GameCube in the form of "Mega Collections" for everyone to enjoy again and again. Who is SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, you ask? BAH, I SAY! Your n00bness is showing! "*deep breath*" -Labyrinth Zone, Sonic 1 (the bubbles are golden....) Sonic the Hedgehog's Contest History Win-Loss Record: '27-11 'Summer 2002 Contest - West Division - 1 Seed * Eastern Round 1 --- Defeated (16) Pitfall Harry, 53023 82.44% - 11292 17.56% * Eastern Quarterfinal --- Defeated (5) Tidus, 33602 58.83% - 23516 41.17% * Eastern Semifinal --- Lost to (5) Samus Aran, 41939 49.98% - 41973 50.02% * Extrapolated Strength --- 5th place 41.05% Summer 2003 Contest - East Division - 2 Seed * Eastern Round 1 --- Defeated (15) Ken Masters, 73484 68.91% - 33146 31.09% * Eastern Quarterfinal --- Defeated (7) Zero, 51903 52.34% - 47261 47.66% * Eastern Semifinal--- Defeated (11) Aeris Gainsborough, 56701 53.02% - 50241 46.98% * Eastern Final --- Lost to (1) Cloud Strife, 36571 33.79% - 71651 66.21% * Extrapolated Strength --- 10th place 34.92% Summer 2004 Contest - Chaos Division - 1 Seed * Chaos Round 1 --- Defeated (16) Terry Bogard, 64615 80.84% - 15316 19.16% * Chaos Quarterfinal --- Defeated (9) Ryu, 45109 57.4% - 33472 42.6% * Chaos Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Dante, 49057 62.03% - 30033 37.97% * Chaos Final --- Lost to (2) Samus Aran, 35897 42.49% - 48589 57.51% * Extrapolated Strength --- 8th place 33.56% Sonic the Hedgehog has seen his ups, downs, lefts, rights, upside downs, loop-the-loops and upside down gravity chambers......well.....you get the idea. Sega's mascot at first glance seemed to be a top pick to take the Summer Contest prize in 2002, but appearances were deceiving and boy were we wrong! Sonic started off as a top seed in the powerful Western Division with the likes of Sephiroth, Mega Man, Samus Aran and Ryu. Today, we know Sonic wouldn't have a shot in hell of taking that division, but back in the days of yore....Sonic was given alot of credit. Again...........BOY, WERE WE WRONG! Sonic eradicated himself of Pitfall Harry with only 82% of the vote and trounced a surprisingly tough challenge in the form of Tidus and THAT RIGHT there should have sent some messages as to how overrated Sonic was at the time. True, Tidus is no pushover but a contest favorite should make easier work of Pitfall Harry and Tidus. In Round 3, the suspicions were true as Sonic fell in one of the best GameFAQs contest matches of all time. Samus Aran made an astounding comeback in the latter stages of the match to defeat the top Western seeded Sonic by 34 votes. A rivalry was born (that would later prove to be rather lopsided...) and Sonic sympathizers came out of the mix, still proclaiming their character as top-tier material. Again, who could tell them he was not? He was Sega's mascot and arguably the second best known mascot in video gaming. The Summer Contest of 2003 came and saw Sonic as a 2 seed in the Eastern Division seeping with such talent as Zero, Cloud Strife, Aeris Gainsbourough and Bowser. Sonic again came out of the gate with a thud yielding a large amount of the vote totals to Ken Masters, a 15 seed. Doom and gloom surrounded much of the Sonic support, but in the next round Sonic took a large match between a quality opponent in Mega Man X's sidekick, Zero. Perhaps Sonic was coming into his own after all, but a mountain of epic proportions came in the form of two FFVII opponents, Aeris and Cloud. Sonic was given a fair chance at beating Aeris but the prospects of Cloud falling to Sonic were declining as not even a SFF match vs Auron saw a dent in the spiky haired hero's armor. Sonic was able to take a hard fought match over Aeris with 53% of the vote. The match vs Cloud would be the end of Sonic's run, and it would also open the eyes of many to the true position of Sonic in the Summer Contest. He was not in any way shape or form, competition to the Summer Contest crown. Sonic was given a division name all his own as top seed in the "Chaos Division" and once more he came out and failed to impress the masses with a ho-hum win over Terry Bogard. Whilst other top seeds were nailing their opponents to the ground, Sonic's win seemed to be a love tap in comparison. Second round opponent, Ryu was even given a healthy shot at an upset over Sonic, but that proved to be false as Sonic came away a 57% victor. Sonic always seems to be ripe for an upsetting loss, but the resilient hog keeps trucking despite what his naysayers might...well......say. Given Ryu had defeated Dante in 2003, the Round 3 duel vs Capcom's demon was never in doubt and that had set up a great rematch between Sonic and Samus in the Chaos Finals. Well, it was hyped and it was anticipated but once again....Sonic laid an egg against the up and coming Samus Aran in a 57% loss that let the world see just how far Sonic had really fallen in the past two years. In a way, Sonic is Mega Man. His games refuse to change and as such, so does his popularity and support. Even his voyages into the 3D realm haven't really sparked any momentum on his behalf and because of this, he will always be spoken as a Noble Nine character but is always suspect to the upset possibility. Sonic fans shouldn't expect a tournament victory anytime soon, but they shouldn't expect nothing but failure either. A Final Four appearance is in the cards given a favorable bracket...but not much more can be expected. Summer 2005 Contest - Chaos Division - 1 Seed * Chaos Round 1 --- Defeated (8) Jin Kazama, 69317 76.15% - 21715 23.85% * Chaos Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Diablo, 63014 68.55% - 28954 31.45% * Chaos Final --- Defeated (3) Tifa, 59703 56.40% - 46155 43.50% * Contest Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Mega Man, 49099 49.63% - 49841 50.37% * Extrapolated Strength --- 8th Place 35.28% For whatever reason, Sonic cannot seem to shake off the ghosts of his famous choke job against Samus in 2002. He seriously has not been the same since. Though Sonic won his division with ease, this isn't what people will remember when discussing Sonic in Summer 2005, though him beating the hell out of Tifa and shutting up the idiotic statheads who decide entire contests after one match was pretty nice (OMG TIFA ALMOST BEET VICE BY AZ MUCH AS CLOUD LOL SHE'Z GOING TO TEH FINAL FOUR WOOT). What people remember is the fated duel with Mega Man, and the match that extended far beyond a simple popularity contest. Sonic and Mega Man are in a bit of a behind the scenes competition to see who can whore themselves in the gaming industry more effectively. Both characters are well past their prime and have begun releasing rehashes and mega collections in an effort to gain back their sales and popularity, but for the most part both have horribly failed and are rapidly falling from the graces they once held. This is especially true in Mega Man's case, because though Sonic possesses the worst fans in gaming (think of Sonic as gaming's version of the Philadelphia Eagles, both in terms of the Eagles never winning the big one and also having the dumbest, most obnoxious bastards alive as their core fanbase), he at least bothers putting out unique games with new formulas once in a blue moon. Mega Man however has been using the same tired formula since the days of Mega Man 2, and the two fanbases have had some rather bitter exchanges over the years. Summer 2005 was the contest where it all came to a head, and the contest where Sonic was supposed to gain back some of his lost dignity and prove to the world that he was not about to be upstaged by some silly robot who has released the same game 100 times. And though Mega Man jumped out to the early lead in the match, Sonic was able to use the famous Sega morning vote to catch up and take the lead. The time had come! Sonic would finally win a tough match and shed being called a has-been! Or at the very least, he wouldn't be considered more of a has-been than Mega Man was. But for whatever reason, Sonic once again failed to cash in on his momentum in a big match. Sonic could have finally gotten that long-missing tough victory that has eluded him from day one in scoring the upset. Instead, not only did Sonic fail to put Mega Man away during his strongest time, but he allowed Mega Man to build an 1100 vote lead on him. But that's fine given what would soon happen, as Sonic would go on his second push of the match and use the evening vote to bring Mega's lead all the way down to 200. Unfortunately, Sonic would be unable to cash in his momentum for the second time. He was never able to get over the final hump in the match, and Mega Man would eventually use the second night vote to put Sonic away for good. It was a hard-fought match that was far closer than the stats projected, but the end result was still the same for Sonic and his poor fans who have still yet to see him win a big match. Sonic is quickly turning into the Atlanta Braves of GameFAQs contests. Year after year Sonic is in one of the highlight matches of a contest, but he always seems to be on the losing side of them. Forget ever seeing Sonic take down Mario; he can't even beat Mega Man or Samus. And as a final fun fact, Sonic is the only Noble Nine member never to make the Final Four. Summer 2006 Contest - Blast Division - 1 Seed * Blast Round 1 --- Defeated (8) CATS, 87757 80.75% - 20925 19.25% * Blast Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Vincent, 64699 52.09% - 59497 47.91% * Blast Final --- Defeated (2) Luigi, 79761 60.19% - 52760 39.81% * Contest Quarterfinal --- Defeated (1) Crono, 64027 50.77% - 62087 49.23% * Contest Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Solid Snake, 62097 45.01% - 75864 54.99% * Extrapolated Strength --- 5th Place 42.21% After *years* of disappointments, Sonic finally decided enough was enough when he was down by 2200 votes to Crono. He rode the full momentum of the beastly SEGA day vote into the biggest single match vote swing ever, and erased years of playing bridesmaid while other characters used him as a litmus test. It was finally Sonic's turn to do some ass-kicking, and though he lost easily to Snake in a very goofy match that made Sonic look weaker than Mega Man for awhile (which is clearly not the case to anyone that saw the first four rounds of this contest), Sonic finally got his time in the sun and made his first Final Four appearance. Now all he needs to do is wait for Snake to win a contest so he can do the same for himself! Summer 2007 Contest - Division 8 - Fourth Group * Division 8 Round 1 --- 1st place, 50042 39.64% - Sub-Zero, 41521 32.89% - Prince of Persia, 22690 17.97% - Viewtiful Joe, 11991 9.50% * Division 8 Round 2 --- 1st place, 56616 44.39% - Sub-Zero, 29931 23.47% - Gordon Freeman, 24034 18.84% - Duke Nukem, 16961 13.30% * Division 8 Final --- 1st place, 46083 32.31% - Squall Leonhart, 43950 30.81% - Sora 28537 20.01% - Sub-Zero, 24063 16.87% * Contest Quarterfinal --- 3rd place, 33339 21.63% - L-Block, 44753 29.03% - Solid Snake, 44489 28.86% - Squall Leonhart, 31584 20.49% I don't know if anyone had a more confusing contest than Sonic. In the first round, he couldn't even beat Sub-Zero by 10,000 votes. Before his second round match, he was officially announced to be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and he proceeded to smash Subby by over 25,000 votes this time. That would have made perfect sense, except for the fact that he nearly lost to Squall in the third round. Sonic got blown away by Snake and L-Block while struggling with Squall one more time. Would the Blue Blur have lost to Squall had it not been for the Brawl announcement? Who knows? Summer 2008 Contest - Division 8 - First Group * Division 8 Round 1 --- 1st place, 48531 36.83% - Sandbag, 32924 24.99% - Magus, 32683 24.80% - Commander Shepard, 17631 13.38% * Division 8 Round 2 --- 2nd place, 38702 29.69% - Auron, 45155 34.64% - Sub-Zero, 26756 20.52% - Sandbag, 19756 15.15% * Division 8 Final --- 2nd place, 37722 28.19% - Sephiroth, 51492 38.49% - Auron, 23048 17.23% - Kratos, 21528 16.09% * Contest Quarterfinal --- 3rd place, 29182 21.50% - Sephiroth, 52270 38.50% - Kirby, 31357 23.10% - Dante, 22947 16.90% Oh my, what a contest for Sonic. His first round match was easy enough. Magus and Sandbag were no threat to him. However, there were many (myself included) who thought that Auron could be a serious threat to beat him. Well, forget about that. Sonic wasn't even a serious threat to Auron. Auron dominated Sonic out of the gate en route to a 5000+ vote and 5% victory, a complete embarrassment for the Noble Nine. Even so, Sephiroth was waiting in the wings in the next round, so Sonic could still sneak into the quarterfinals on his one-wing and SFF, which he did. The sad thing is that he still came nowhere near Sephiroth even while he was getting LFF'd by Auron. But no one was prepared for what happened next. Kirby jumped out of the gate and took a quick lead over Sonic at the freeze. No big deal, Kirby has a great board vote, right? But then the lead kept getting bigger...and bigger...and bigger. By the end of the first hour, Kirby had a 500 vote lead and extended it to 1500 overnight. Sonic never really made a serious push at him, and like that, the Blue Blur had found yet another way to embarrass himself completely. With a return to 1-on-1 contests looming, could the hedgehog be the one who finally puts the Noble Nine out of its misery? Winter 2010 Contest - Chaos Division - 1 Seed * Chaos Round 1 --- Defeated (16) Lightning, 34159 63.86% - 19335 36.14% * Chaos Round 2 --- Defeated (9) Knuckles, 35668 67.61% - 17085 32.39% * Chaos Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Ganondorf, 29904 57.18% - 22394 42.82% * Chaos Final --- Defeated (3) Kirby, 39575 54.61% - 32894 45.39% * Contest Quarterfinal --- Lost to (1) Link, 16004 29.77% - 37755 70.23% * Extrapolated Strength --- 24th Place 29.77% This first-round match sparked a lot of Board 8 outcry that Sonic was about to kill the Noble Nine, which only increased in intensity when Knuckles struggled to put away Cecil. Sonic failed to double a character whose game wasn't even out yet? Some claimed that once her game was out, Lightning was a potential Noble Nine breaker (assuming it wasn't already broken by then), while others argued that her strong performance was precisely because her game wasn't out yet and that she'd fall back to earth once it came out. The threat of a rematch with Kirby in the Chaos Division semifinals loomed large, and the question was not if Kirby would make it that far, but if Sonic would, a fact that hinged largely on whether or not Ganondorf's "Pig Ganon" sprite would hurt him. A few days prior to the start of his predictable SFF doubling of Knuckles, Sonic received "good news" of a sort--he had avoided the ignominy of being the one to break the Noble Nine, as Crono proved that it was no fluke he'd lost to Sonic by losing to a "character" whose very existence was due to a glitch. It didn't take any of the heat off of Sonic, but whatever happened, the death of the Noble Nine would not be Sonic's fault. Then, the long-awaited rematch with Kirby actually happened, and Sonic won as expected. He then let Link destroy him by getting 70% on him. How sad. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 2 - 1 Seed * Division 2 Round 1 --- 1st place, 20669 66.3% - (18) Fei Fong Wong, 6288 20.17%, (27) Dan Hibiki, 4217 13.53% * Division 2 Round 2 --- 1st place, 17109 50.02% - (10) Barret Wallace, 8923 26.09%, (13) Dracula, 8173 23.89% * Division 2 Final --- 2nd place, 18277 34.58% - (11) Mewtwo, 22104 41.82%, (7) Bowser, 12477 23.6% Again drifting from 1-on-1 shows how Sonic can fall with more than one adversary. Blasting fodder in Round 1 is to be expected. Dominating in Round 2 as well, even if losing quite some votes to the competition (only one of whom had the excuse of being from FF7). Then five years later Sonic again suffers LFF from Nintendo mid-carders. And not any characters: the always reliable Bowser and Mewtwo, who was enhanced by not only the rising Pokémon strength (which allowed Pikachu to have the first 1-seed\Noble Nine upset previously) but the announcement of a "Mega Evolution" in Pokémon X&Y. Thus Mewtwo took the lead, King Koopa leeched the votes that could help a Blue Blur comeback, and the hedgehog falls in round 3 for the second time ever. As Mario had the bad fortune to prove the previous round, luck can be a bitch to some gaming icons. Fall 2018 Contest - Finals Division - 6 Seed * Legends Round 1 --- Defeated Auron, 15688 54.32% - 13194 45.68% * Quarterfinals --- Lost to Zelda, 12507 43.55% - 16210 56.45% * Loser Bracket Round 2 --- Lost to Solid Snake, 11999 42.47% - 16257 57.53% As a Noble Niner who didn't share a game with Cloud, Sonic was spared from the regular bracket and put right away in the Legends bracket. His strength was questioned, but with nostalgia and recent hits such as Sonic Mania to help him, the Blue Blur handily beat Auron, proving that 2008 upset was a fluke. Then like in 2013, Sonic was struck by a boosted Nintendo character, namely Zelda, who with Breath of the Wild and Smash Bros hype on her back even managed to take down an even stronger Noble Niner previously. And said victim waited in the loser bracket: Snake, who managed to get even higher percentages compared to their 2006 encounter. To make things worse, had he survived Zelda, the long-overdue Sonic-Mario could finally happen. All his bad games have certainly blemished Sonic's popularity, and led to those unflattering contest letdowns (giving in to Samus and Mega Man, losing to L-Block, Kirby, Mewtwo and Zelda). But even if he's on the weak side of the Noble Nine, that means gamers really like Sonic and he'll always get plenty of votes no matter what - remember that the only ones who broke 60% on him were Cloud and Link. Category:Contest Histories